Yobe killings barbaric, wicked – Jonathan

 

President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday described the killing of 29 pupils of Government Secondary School, Mamudo, Potiskum, Yobe State, as wicked and barbaric and vowed to flush our perpetrators of violence out of the country.

“The killing is barbaric, completely wicked. Anybody who will target innocent children for any kind of grief will certainly go to hell,” the President said in a statement by his spokesman, Reuben Abati.

The presidential condemnation came on the heels of the closure of secondary schools in Yobe as a result of the killings of the school pupils in Mamudo.

Governor Ibrahim Gaidam who described the killing as “cold-blooded murder”  when he visited the attacked school on Sunday ordered all secondary schools in the state shut until the beginning of next academic session in September.

The pupils and one of their teachers were murdered by suspected members of the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram whom the security forces had been waging war against since the declaration of state of emergency in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno states on May 14 this year.

Abati added, “Mr. President wants to assure Nigerians that these kind of desperate Nigerians will be flushed out of the system.

“Mr. President is committed to the issue of the protection of lives and properties of all Nigerians and he wants to assure Nigerians that the war against terrorists has been launched and will continue and the Nigerian government is determined to put an end to this menace.

“The President sympathises with the families affected and he stands by them at this moment of grief. The killing is most unfortunate, most regrettable and Mr. President wants to assure Nigerians that any attempt by any group to undermine this government will be resisted.”

Apart from the President, Nigerians on Sunday expressed outrage at the killing of the young pupils with the Senate President David Mark calling for a definite halt to the spate of killings by members of Boko Haram and other violent groups in the country.

Mark said, “Even in war situations, children and women are protected. Killing children is akin to cutting down the future of a people. This is inhuman, barbaric and unacceptable to any right thinking member of the society.

“For no reason, the lives of these promising children were needlessly cut down by the heartless people. This cannot be a way of life. Enough of this bloodshed.”

He urged the security operatives to step up their surveillance and monitoring activities to halt the trend and bring perpetrators to justice.

Senator Mark assured that the National Assembly would continue to give priority attention to appropriation to the security operatives to carry out their duties without hitches.

Meanwhile, the killers appeared to have shifted attention to defenceless young persons.

Suspected Boko Haram members had on June 17, 2013, killed nine pupils sitting for the National Examination Council examination at the Ansarudeen Primary/ Secondary School located in the Jajeri ward of Maiduguri metropolis in Borno State.

On June 16, gunmen suspected to be members of the group killed seven pupils of a secondary school in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital.